How Curry became all-time assists leader
With his assist to Kelly Oubre Jr. in the third quarter against the Lakers Monday night at Chase Center, Stephen Curry became the Warriors’ franchise leader in assists for a career, breaking Guy Rodgers’ 55-year-old franchise record of 4,855.
During the first minute of the third quarter, Curry found a cutting Kelly Oubre Jr., who scored over Lakers forward LeBron James and gave Curry his 4,856th career assist. Curry tied Rogers with 4:18 to go in the first quarter, when he found James Wiseman diving to the rim.
Curry is best known for his 3-point shooting from extraordinary distances, but his ability to turn that space into easy shots for his teammates has been an important factor in the Warriors’ success. His sense for getting his own looks and deferring to others is second-to-none.
“The assists don’t even begin to tell the story of what a good passer Steph is,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “He can make passes with either hand and he gets blitzed so often that a lot of his passes come in traffic, under duress. And he does an incredible job of getting the ball out of the traps, and finding the right guy.”
Though Draymond Green is on pace to lead the Warriors in assists for the fifth time in the last six seasons, Curry is the origin of Golden State’s ball-movement heavy offense.
“The Steph-Draymond connection has been so potent for us over the years, and a huge part of that interaction is Steph actually getting the ball to Draymond. A lot of his best passes don’t even lead to an assist. They lead to Draymond’s assist.”
It wasn’t always that way. When Curry first entered the NBA as a diminutive point guard out of Davidson, he drew comparisons to Hall of Fame point guard Steve Nash, who won a pair of MVP awards (2005, 2006) because of his ability to kickstart the Suns’ “Seven Seconds or Less” offense. Like Nash, Curry ran a heavy dose of pick-and-roll.
In his first game after the Warriors selected him with the seventh pick in the 2009 draft, Curry
had 14 points and dished seven assists. During the game, the broadcast team claimed the rookie could lead coach Don Nelson’s group in assists by season’s end, and he did.
Curry’s first career assist went to Stephen Jackson. Curry ran a pick-and-roll on the right side of the court and whipped a side-arm pass to Jackson, who scored on an easy layup.
“That pick-and-roll play was something we practiced, trying to create mismatches,” Jackson said. “I’m just honored to say that his first assist came to me.”
Curry’s passing ability has evolved since that assist to Jackson. His assist numbers steadily climbed until reaching a peak in the 201415 season, when he averaged 8.5 assists per 36 minutes and won his first MVP trophy. That was Kerr’s first season. Upon taking over for Mark Jackson, Kerr instituted a read-and-react offense that jettisoned traditional pick-and-roll sets for more nuanced actions and side-to-side movement.
As a result, Curry expanded his range of passes. He got stronger so he could whip passes across the court and from challenging angles. He turned the ball over more often, but the Warriors’ offense blossomed into one of the greatest off all time.
“He’s always been a risktaker,” Kerr said of Curry. “He throws some lefthanded, over-the-top passes to weak-side shooters and those are difficult passes. Nobody taught me how to make those passes. You realize, at this level, with the kind of pressure defenses put on you, you have to do some different things than what most of us grew up doing.
“I sort of had to learn to live with Steph’s crosscourt one-hand stuff,” Kerr continued, “because he’s got really good with it and overall hits a pretty high percentage of it.”
Now the Warriors are on track to lead the NBA in assists for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. On a team without Klay Thompson’s shooting prowess and no longer able to rely on Kevin Durant’s isolation greatness, ball movement has become even more important than during Golden State’s five Finals runs.